Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Arsenal have brought in Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker and Chu Young Park over the last day or so, which I thought would be the last of the transfer dealings.

But tonight, drama took over when Arsenal were linked to Mikel Arteta. I thought this was complete nonsense and inevitably, the deal broke down as I expected.

But then, with only a couple of hours to go in the transfer window it was dramatically announced that he wanted to leave Everton.

A massive shock to myself, but a pleasant one at that!

After that it was a nail-bitting wait to see if Arsenal could complete the deal in time.

But the bottom line is that we’ve brought in Yossi Benayoun and Mikel Arteta, along with the other signings we’ve made, and while they might not be “marque” signings most Arsenal fans wanted, I am more than happy with them.

I never wanted superstar signings but just players with Premier League experience, and players that don’t need to acclimatise to the country and the pace of the Premier League. Arteta and Benayoun are solid performers and add strength to our midfield, and that is fantastic news.

Well done Arsene and Arsenal, after the shambolic 8-2 defeat against Manchester United on Sunday, that have redeemed themselves with some astute purchases on transfer deadline day!

We’ve brought in experienced players and you can’t ask for any more than that really.

With only a few hours left of the transfer deadline at 11pm, the strongest stories at the present moment are the potential signings of Mikel Arteta for around Â£10 million from Everton, and Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea, possibly on loan.

The problem is, the signing of Arteta goes against Arsene’s whole transfer policy.

Apart from Diarra, Gallas and Silvestre, all of the players we’ve brought in have been from outside of the Premier League. So clearly this is a conscious decision made by Arsene and his team.

Why is this?

Maybe he feels Premier League players are over priced? Whatever the reason, bringing in other players from teams from the Premier League is something that Arsene clearly likes to avoid.

So don’t bank on the Mikel Arteta deal to go through.

And the rumours are that Arsenal are offering Â£10 million for his services. Although Arteta is obviously not in the same league as Cesc, Â£10 million is under-valuing him if you ask me and we saw what happened when Arsenal tried to get Jagielka for a similar price.

Arsenal can always say they tried to sign a creative midfielder later on in the season if Arsenal struggle to score goals or have to play the younger players in midfield.

Arsenal have already wrapped up the signing of Chu Young Park, and look to complete the signings of German defender Per Mertesacker and Brazilian Andre Santos from Fenerbahce.

But will there by any more additions to Arsenal today?

The rumour mill has been going into overdrive today (unsurprisingly) and we’ve been linked with players such as Keisuke Honda, Eden Hazard, Yossi Benayoun and even Everton’s Mikel Arteta.

While they all seem a bit pie in the sky, the running theme with today’s rumours (with two defenders already snapped up) is that Arsenal are after a creative midfielder.

Will I be surprised if Arsenal’s spending stopped at the three signings we made yesterday? No, but adding any kind of strength to the midfield would be fantastic and give Arsenal a far better chance of making a go of this season.

Thankfully, I have been away for a week in sunny south Spain for the last six days and was fortunate to miss the shambles that was the 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday. I did manage to avoid all of the football results and catch MOTD2 on Sunday evening and I was, quite frankly, unsurprised.

Arsenal have a threadbare squad, we all know that. Our best players don’t believe in Arsene and his methods anymore, we know that. And we also know that however optimistic I may have been during the start of the season, the best we can hoep for is 4th place this season.

Moving on though, and finding the silver-lining from the humiliating defeat against Manchester United, it seems that it has kicked Arsene and Arsenal’s arse into gear in the transfer market.

No offence to Chu Young Park, but I’ve never heard of him before, and from what I’ve read his record isn’t great. Andre Santos you can put in the same category, and Mertesacker is known to be a solid but slow defender.

From the rumoured “war chest” that Arsenal have which is believed to be around Â£35 million, plus the Â£25 million for Nasri, Â£35 million for Fabregas and the rest from the sale of Eboue, then we should be a healthy position to buy more established, and more importantly, experienced Premier League footballers.

We all know about the desperate situation Everton are in, so why not try and get Jagielka and Baines? And the ridiculous saga with Bolton over Cahill is simply embarrassing.

The board keep on giving Arsene their support, but quite frankly they will continue to do so as long as the Arsenal manager continues to make them all a big profit, regardless of what happens on the pitch or how the Arsenal fans feel.